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Episodes
What is Labor doing on coal?
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Albanese says ending Australian coal exports won’t halt climate change. He says we need to cut emissions, but Adani should get on with it an...
Helen Garner’s diary
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Garner has been keeping a diary for as long as she has been a writer. She published extracts from last year’s in the latest issue of The Month...
Brian Houston, we have a problem
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the Hillsong Church booms internationally, its local arm is still dealing with the fallout from the royal commission into child sexual abuse. Rick ...
Return to Stasiland
15 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, former members of the Stasi are still working to control the conversation about the regime they once s...
Where there’s smoke, there’s climate change
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As fires burn across the east coast and Sydney suffers catastrophic air pollution, the Coalition government is arguing to do less on climate change. S...
What happened to David Savage
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Seven years ago, David Savage was injured while working for the Australian government in Afghanistan. He has fought since to have his compensation set...
The big wedge (Or: How Murdoch lobbies government)
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Following an inquiry into digital platforms, the government finds itself wedged between News Corp and the tech giants. Both sides are lobbying heavily...
The man who didn’t kill Colin Winchester (part two)
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Description: Following his wrongful conviction for the murder of Canberra’s top police officer, David Eastman sought compensation. But there are big...
The man who didn’t kill Colin Winchester (part one)
08 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Canberra in the 1970s and ’80s, David Eastman was thought of as a serial pest. That was until he was convicted of murdering the assistant commiss...
Jacqui Lambie’s secret deal
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the parliamentary year ends, and politicians go home for summer, Scott Morrison is celebrating the repeal of medevac. The key vote came from Jacqui...
Angus Taylor’s hydrogen scandal
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hydrogen will be a major renewable energy source, and can be produced by splitting water atoms. But the government is ignoring this low-carbon option ...
George Megalogenis on Australia’s next decade
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the first two decades of the 21st century come to an end, Australia is going to be forced to confront its place as a middle power and embrace an el...
Andrew Bolt vs Dark Emu
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Bolt has led a campaign against Bruce Pascoe and his book Dark Emu. But after reading the explorer journals on which the book is based, Rick Mo...
Inside the Westpac scandal
01 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the fallout from the Westpac scandal continues, attempts are already underway to limit corporate responsibility. Michael West on why the story brok...
Defending Angus Taylor (the lone wolf and the albatross)
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has put himself in a difficult position, calling the NSW police commissioner to check on an investigation into his own minister. Paul B...
Fascism and troll culture
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
According to author Jeff Sparrow, a new fascism is emerging from the internet – one that is rooted in meme culture, but that harnesses mass shooting...
The politicians fighting to bring Assange home
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Julian Assange fights against extradition to the United States, an unlikely group of politicians is working to have him returned to Australia. Rick...
Peter Ridd’s European adventure
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A speaking tour of Europe has revealed the strategy behind Peter Ridd’s rejection of reef science: he believes that if people doubt the reef is dyin...
The red princeling
24 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Xi Jinping’s ambitions for China are paranoid and expansionist. His mindset mirrors that of the guerrilla fighters in the Chinese Civil War. Peter H...
Robo-debt and China (a week in two acts)
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Morrison government has halted its robo-debt program, finally confronting issues with the troubled scheme. Separately, the government has affirmed...
The next fight on Uluru
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison’s co-design process gets underway, ruling out the key aspirations of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, there are signs that a ne...
The cabinet maker
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Since becoming prime minister, Scott Morrison has stamped himself on the cabinet process. There will be more PowerPoints, and less debate about issues...
Changing consent law
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A review of consent laws in New South Wales is recommending changes to how juries interpret sexual assaults and the onus that is placed on defendants....
Thoughts and prayers are not enough
17 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, a million hectares of eastern Australia was burnt in catastrophic bushfires. In the main, politicians refused to acknowledge the science th...
The burning truth
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As fires burn through NSW and Queensland, a fundamental shift can be detected in Canberra: the politics of climate change have altered. It is no longe...
ASIO officers broke law on warrant
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We don’t know what exactly happened or what ASIO was investigating; those details are secret. What we do know is that early last year the spy agency...
Sums in a notepad: mental health and work
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New work from the Productivity Commission shows the federal government spends twice as much on income support for people affected by mental illness as...
Morrison’s darkest speech yet
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, Scott Morrison described his plans for a ban on environmental groups lobbying businesses. The speech he gave has been called a defining mome...
What’s happening in Queensland?
10 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Lech Blaine grew up in country Queensland. After the 2019 federal election, he spent several weeks driving around the state, trying to understand what...
The sniff, the scent of victory
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Labor responds to an internal review of its election defeat, some in the party feel they have already lost the next election. While the party strug...
The death toll of inequality
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is a widening gap in Australia between the life expectancy of the rich and the poor. On some figures it is as much as 10 years. Mike Seccombe on...
Green-energy superpower
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ross Garnaut wrote the blueprint for Australia’s response to climate change. As the politics fell apart, he became interested in the economic opport...
Looking for Albanese
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Albanese was shaped by the circumstances of his childhood: a single mother, a council house, a love of the Labor Party. The question now is if...
The surplus disease
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Morrison government is committed to a budget surplus above all else. But as Paul Keating points out, this commitment can be a kind of sickness. Pa...
Rosie Batty’s next fight
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After the Morrison government announced another inquiry into the family courts, to be co-chaired by Pauline Hanson, advocates in the sector expressed ...
Strip-searched in Newtown
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the number of police strip-searches rises in New South Wales, a law enforcement commission considers whether many of them are actually legal. Fiona...
Swallowed by the sea (part two)
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How the American anti-climate-science lobby hijacked local councils in Australia, changing sea-level benchmarks as it went.Guest: Writer for The Month...
Swallowed by the sea (part one)
27 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A decision to hand planning about sea-level rise to local council has opened up a war around science, property values and influence. Bronwyn Adcock on...
To Howard with love
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the Liberal Party celebrates its 75th anniversary, the Nationals are brawling with each other about drought. At the same time, concern grows over p...
Lock ’em up
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Australia is almost alone in the world in its willingness to lock up primary-school-age children for criminal offences. But the “tough on crime” r...
Out of office
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Labor waits for a review of its election loss, and another into the operations of its NSW branch, Anthony Albanese is wrestling with divisions insi...
Restarting robo-debt
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
An error at the Department of Human Services caused the original robo-debt algorithm to restart, issuing thousands of unchecked debt notices. Royce Ku...
A classroom full of dollars
20 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The boom in international education has seen students become commodities. It has also changed the way universities operate - chasing rankings and casu...
That won’t feed one cow
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison attempts to control the message on how his government is handling the drought, there is bad news for his claims to strong economic m...
Cash and the black economy
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New legislation will restrict the way Australians use cash. But there are concerns the laws could jail people for using legal tender. Karen Middleton ...
Peter Dutton’s war on dissent
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From anti-protest legislation to funding cuts, this government has waged war on dissent. In recent weeks, its rhetoric has intensified. Mike Seccombe ...
Exclusive: Forfeited to state care
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The NDIS was meant to provide better care to people living with disabilities. But a stalemate over funding responsibilities has forced 500 families to...
Spies and Chinese money
13 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Australia’s relationship with international investment, especially from China, has been remade in the past six years. What was once a question of bu...
The luck and the chutzpah
10 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Liberal Party is sliding further on climate change, claiming it will meet targets but without policy to do so. At the same time, the Labor Party i...
The Monthly Awards 2019
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Each year, The Monthly assembles a panel of critics and artists to nominate 10 standout pieces of Australian culture from the past 12 months. These wo...
Carbon, beef and the underground economy
08 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The latest IPCC report says current farming practices are unsustainable. But there are solutions, if farmers want to change. Matthew Evans on how the ...
Growing old in a pyramid scheme
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The aged-care sector is on the brink of collapse. The major providers have been propped up by a government bailout, but without reform they cannot kee...
Who is Scott Morrison?
06 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison shares a rhetorical lineage with Robert Menzies and a suburban one with John Howard. Like Menzies, he has no clear policy agenda. But, ...
Trump, Morrison, money and the drought
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison tried to shift Australia’s focus to the drought, and the cash rate fell below 1 per cent, Donald Trump’s paranoia followed the p...
What drives Penny Wong
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Penny Wong is the intellectual leader of the Labor Party. Her politics is shaped by her experiences of difference and her belief in compassion. Her bi...
Almonds are the devil’s nut
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Murray–Darling Basin is being ruined by cronyism and incompetence. Entire towns are running out of water. But a new crop is exploiting the syste...
Part two: The sentencing of Jaymes Todd
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The judge who sentenced Jaymes Todd for the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon was asked to consider mitigating factors that included Todd’s age, his...
Part one: The murder of Eurydice Dixon
29 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the terrible facts about the day Jaymes Todd killed Eurydice Dixon is that for him it was almost all very ordinary. Sarah Krasnostein on a crim...
Convicting a Newcastle priest
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When former Anglican dean Graeme Lawrence was found guilty of child sexual abuse, his victim, Ben Giggins, made the unusual decision to request that t...
Running the NDIS
24 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a royal commission into disability care begins, it emerges that key emails relating to the NDIS are held on a private bank server and cannot be acc...
Death of the speech
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The death of Graham Freudenberg comes at a time when politics has all but abandoned speech making. Don Watson on how the loss of big narratives denies...
Inside the Tanya Day inquest
22 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tanya Day was a 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman. She died after being arrested on a train for public drunkenness. Madeline Hayman-Reber on how a coroner...
Scott goes to Washington
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tomorrow, Scott Morrison will be received in Washington on a state visit. The trip highlights the special relationship he has with Donald Trump. At th...
What’s eating Philip Lowe
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Lowe is the governor of the Reserve Bank. By all accounts, he is a conventional person who’s been pushed by the economy to make unconventiona...
Return to Timor-Leste
17 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years after Timor-Leste’s vote for independence led to bloody retaliation from Indonesia, the country’s relationship with Australia remains...
Scott Morrison’s poverty fix
16 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison announces plans to expand the cashless welfare program and drug test dole recipients, questions are raised over the effectiveness of...
Inside the meat disco
15 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Spiro Boursinos was the impresario behind the rave music phenomenon Earthcore. When he died last year, he left behind a legacy of paranoia, intimidati...
Holding onto Gladys Liu
12 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While some backbenchers doubt that Gladys Liu can stay in parliament, Scott Morrison has given her his full support. At the same time, he is in the di...
The Daddy Quota
11 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Annabel Crabb decided to find out what happens to men’s work habits when they have children, she discovered a huge store of gendered norms and ...
Christian Porter’s integrity commission
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As ICAC exposes apparent corruption in New South Wales, focus is drawn on the government’s integrity commission, which, among other things, could no...
Inside the Adani blockade
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is fresh momentum behind the Adani mine in central Queensland, as the state government pushes through approvals and native title is extinguished...
The revolving door
08 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System has heard evidence of dysfunction, inflexibility and underfunding. It has also heard perso...
What Morrison didn’t expect in Biloela
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Morrison government has been flatfooted by public outrage over its plan to deport a family from Biloela. Attempts to recapture the narrative have ...
The truth about wages
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Frydenberg’s appeal for companies to address wage stagnation underscores the lack of government policy in the area. It also highlights how the ...
American secrets
03 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Brian Toohey releases his major book on national security in Australia, he reveals that American spies have been working here without detection. Ka...
Reporting the Panama Papers
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Panama Papers were the largest leak in financial history. They helped expose tax evasion and misdeeds that ensnared major companies and foreign go...
Badiucao, Chinese dissident
01 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Months before the latest mass protests began in Hong Kong, the Chinese government shut down an art exhibition in the city. The work was by Badiucao, a...
Timor bug, China spy
29 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison celebrates Timor-Leste’s independence, tension over the Witness K case continues to undermine the relationship. At the same time, ...
Home Affairs’ propaganda machine
28 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When a communications agency started contacting members of the Muslim community for social media training, it seemed like their intentions were to ele...
Inside the Greens
27 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Greens is a party with a leader who many think is too mainstream, struggling with the growing pains of infighting and factionalism. The party’s ...
Scott Morrison’s middle class
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has made a new appeal to the group he calls the “Quiet Australians”. He says they have a “trust deficit” with the public servic...
Grief, anger and climate change
25 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joelle Gergis is one of Australia’s leading climate scientists. She says the current modelling is worse than previously thought. She also says the m...
Scott Morrison vs. the World
22 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After unhappy scenes at the Pacific Islands Forum, Scott Morrison is making a tour of Vietnam and then France for the G7. But his attempts at diplomac...
Drugs in swimming
21 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The furore over Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s stand against long-time rival Sun Yang underscores confusion about how drug testing in sport works....
Saving the birthing trees
20 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the Andrews government attempts to negotiate treaty with First Nations people in Victoria, it is proceeding with a plan to bulldoze hundreds of sac...
Is China a threat?
19 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Xi Jinping increases his power and ambition, there is tension over the influence China has in Australia. Progressive critics finds themselves align...
Booing Adam Goodes
18 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Goodes is one of the great AFL players of his generation. His career was played, especially in its final seasons, at the intersection of race and...
Hastie and Morrison
15 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the Morrison government begins its inquiry into press freedom, there is concern about the bipartisanship of the committee hearing it. At the centre...
Sperm in the time of Facebook
14 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A strict legal framework means there is a shortage of sperm donors across Australia. But online there is a huge and unregulated market of people willi...
Schoolyard bullies
13 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the past decade, reports of teachers and principals being abused by parents have increased. Accounts range from intimidation to stalking. Jane Caro...
On politics and gambling
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The refusal of the major parties to hold a parliamentary inquiry into Crown Casino speaks to a larger and more pervasive relationship between politics...
Murdoch and the far-right
11 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time ever, individual articles in the media can be linked to far-right recruitment drives. High on the list is reporting from The Austra...
Rodney Rude diplomacy
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A visit from key US ministers gives a clearer picture of what America wants from Australia. But as Trump’s trade war with China escalates, it also s...
A question of dignity
07 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The royal commission into aged care has heard evidence of extreme deprivation and mistreatment. It has also inquired into the toll taken on people car...
Racism and the judge
06 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Comments about Aboriginal people by a Northern Territory judge have led to widespread outrage. But the legal body whose clients were being addressed d...
The ballad of Trump and ScoMo
18 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has emerged as one of Donald Trump’s favourite leaders. But the association asks questions about race and crude politics. Chris Walla...
Understanding Scott Morrison’s Pentecostalism
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has always maintained that he doesn’t view the Bible as a policy handbook. But a former worshipper at Hillsong Church argues that Pen...
Guarding the henhouse
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Almost two years since changes were implemented following a royal commission into youth detention, tear gas is again being used on children in the Nor...
The truth about small government
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison’s signature achievement could be the tax cuts he legislated earlier this month - although not for the reasons he believes. Over time,...
The extinction rebellion
14 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Extinction Rebellion is a global, non-violent protest movement, aimed at addressing climate change. The difference is that it is not focusing on one p...